Induction
by imawalrus
Summary: Everyone who Naruto grew up with is getting ready for the induction of the Rokudaime, but the person of the hour seems to be taking his time getting there.


Don't own Naruto

Slight SasuNaru at the end.

Today is an important day for Konoha village as the new Hokage is going to be named Rokudaime officially. Everyone already knows who it is, so this is really just a formality.

There's Kiba pulling his seven children out of the house. None of them look too interested to be attending this, but they'll find it gets quite interesting what with the celebrating after. The kids are cute (five boys (they have identical triplets) and two girls) but a little odd looking because while they look like Kiba for the most part (except for one of the boys who looks exactly like his mother) they all have their mother's eyes.

And just where is their mother? She's probably fending off the rest of her clan in order to get home. Actually… here she comes. These past six years have been good for Hinata. She's grown, leaving me as the shortest of our group of friends, and she's gained a lot of confidence, but then she's the head of her family and if she doesn't want people to be walking all over her (or gossiping about the Hyuugas) then she needs to be assertive.

Both call out to me as they watch me walk by. That was a mistake because the clean little children that Kiba had just manhandled into behaving all cried out in joy and run over to me with shouts of "Uncle Naruto!"

I've tried telling them I'm not their uncle, but they don't care. Even the oldest ones still call me that.

Shino arrives just before they all jump on me, and I'm grateful. They love me, but they actually like Shino more. The boys think it's awesome that he has bugs in his body and the girls live with too much testosterone to not pick up some of their likes. Shino waves a greeting and his fiancée graces me with a smile. I wonder if she finds the bugs weird while they're having sex… I would.

Neji arrives from inside the Hyuuga-Inuzuka house straightening his clothes, he looks a little frazzled which is odd for him, but then he must have just finished tutoring his cousins. He's a great teacher, but because he's related to them they don't respect him so much and they tend to cause quite a racket.

He escapes from Kiba's family and joins me as I continue down the road.

"Morning," I greet.

"Excited?"

I smile, "Of course."

As we approach a weapon's shop Neji slows down. "I'll see you there; I need to get some stuff from the apartment."

He heads towards the weapon's shop because he lives above it. For a while he had been sharing an apartment with me, but we decided to go our separate ways and now he lives alone. I think he really enjoys the freedom of being on his own. There are two apartments above the shop, one that the owner's family lives in and the other is rented to Neji.

And the shop owner is Tenten of course. She married another weapons enthusiast from Grass village and he moved to Konoha, they opened a shop, and now they have five kids of their own. She's become quite renowned and not just in Konoha. There are shinobi that come from as far as Hidden Cloud to purchase her specially made weapons.

From inside the shop she waves cheerily at me. She's changed a bit from when we were younger. Her hair is no longer kept up and is now shoulder length and constantly kept down, held back only by her hitai-ate.

Tenten looks like she was waiting for Neji to come back so she could close up shop and they could leave for the ceremony together.

"I'll see you there, Naruto!"

I give her a smile and a wave.

The main street is up ahead and there are more people gathering. I'm not quite ready to run into the crowds, but I can see Rock Lee and his handsome family. He married Sakura. Apparently he just wore her down over the years. But… I don't think she minds too much.

The best thing about their marriage is the fact that only one of their four children has his eyebrows and none have her bright pink hair. One has streaks, but for the most part their hair is brown or black. Unfortunately the one with streaks is the one with fuzzy eyebrows. Poor girl.

They don't see me because Sakura is chatting with Ino who is flanked by her former teammates plus some additions.

Ino's new boy toy is off to the side having a hard time not withering under the judging stares of Shikamaru and Chouji. However the man must not have too much backbone because neither of them is even giving it their all. Chouji's girlfriend of three months keeps drawing his attention away, and Shikamaru's wife is nagging him.

He probably deserves whatever Temari happens to be yelling at him for.

Temari moved to Konoha after the chuunin exam she helped to set up when she was 18. I had only teased Shikamaru and Temari about being on a date, but I think they took it seriously and before I knew it they really were dating. About two years later Temari was demanding that Shikamaru ask her to marry him or break up the damn relationship.

Shikamaru pulled out the ring he had bought six months earlier and told her to shut up.

It was all very romantic.

Now at the age of 21 Shikamaru is a dad of two hyperactive boys with a girl, if Tsunade-baachan is right, on the way. It looks like Shikamaru's ambition of a safe and secure lifestyle got thrown out the window the day he _met_ Temari.

I'm noticing a lack of jounin as I try to avoid the crowds as much as possible. The last thing I want right now is the attention. I suppose the jounin, Kakashi included, are at Hokage Tower, securing the place for the ceremony. However, Iruka-sensei isn't around, and that's confusing. I would think he'd be on the look out for me, but perhaps he's finally letting me grow up.

So there was everyone I grew up with all grown up themselves. Married or dating with kids and jobs and apartments of their own. Lives still entwining, but separate at the same time.

But where is Sasuke? He's been left out of the picture so far.

He's leaning against the side of Ichiraku's, as if he's just waiting for me to show up… and he is. He could have met up with me at Hokage Tower. He could have showed up at the apartment. But he's here, because he knows me well.

"You know you shouldn't be out wandering the streets," he admonishes me. "Tsunade-sama is probably throwing fits right now."

"Let her."

"You have responsibilities now."

"This is my last day of freedom!"

"Wrong," he grins, and it isn't that 'I'm an evil ass' grin. "You lost your freedom when I moved in. Now move your ass to the ceremony, unless you want Tsunade-sama to give away the title of Rokudaime to the closest shinobi."

"I don't like formal things like this."

"And I don't like babysitting you, but it apparently needs to be done. Don't come crying to me for sympathy."

"Do you even know what sympathy is outside of the dictionary definition?" He's getting a dangerous look in his eyes. I lean in and placate him with a kiss. "I'm going!"

I turn away in a huff and head towards Hokage Tower because it really is bad taste, even for me, to be late for my own induction to the rank of Hokage.

"Wait," he grabs my arm. "Good luck and congratulations." He surprises me with a kiss of his own. "This is nine years in the making, you deserve it."

Even though he looks almost exactly the same as he used to, Sasuke has really changed the most, and I guess I've got a lot to do with that.

Corny end!


End file.
